Arlington Town Day is about a month and a half away and I’m trying to come up with a new name for my revamped and overhauled craft business. I’ve been tossing about a number of ideas in my head, but two seem to stick around. Which, if either, do you think would sound like a good name for a business that’s trying to bring crocheted fashions out of the Dark Ages (without going art fag)?

The Hook Brings You Back

Crowe Shea (yeah, I’ve spent too much time in an area that relies heavily on word play)

I’d like to welcome all the friends and family members who found me on Facebook and ventured over. Hopefully my blog posts won’t be too scary.

I’ve been incredibly busy lately. I’m a big fan of Flylady.net and this month I added a buttload of chores to my to-do list. I’ve managed to tweak my schedule enough to get most of the stuff done, but there have been a few sacrifices. Like posting, reading posts, and fanfic writing. Hopefully they will be only temporary sacrifices.

As some of you may already know, I’ve been taking an online class in business management through Minuteman. That’s the school Ben goes to (and will hopefully graduate from this year). I’m about halfway through. It’s amazing how much I already know.

I’ve been crocheting like a mofu (the preteen and I decided “mofu” is the proper abbreviation of “mother fucker” *laughs*) since I received word that the “Library Ladies” will most likely have a table at Town Day again. I’ve got just under 5 months to make stuff, though I plan on finishing out this month by finishing the skirt I’ve been working on. My goal is to have the scarves that everyone went nutso over last Xmas, arm warmers, possibly some animal hats, and bunny slippers. I took advantage of A.C. Moore’s sale yesterday and stocked up on a ton of yarn — all at the lowest prices I’ve seen. I also picked up a hook set that has ergonimic handles for easier crocheting (at half price). I find it hard to keep my stiches consistent due to the narrow hook slipping in my hands as I work. I’ll have to re-time how long it takes me to make things to see if I need to reconsider prices.

Somewhere in the middle of all this I’ve managed to lose some weight. I’m now down to 163 pounds, with a body fat percentage of 28.7%. Just 6.7 points to go! Now that we have a local bike shop that truly local I am hoping to get my bike’s derailers adjusted so I can start biking again. I miss riding my bike!

Now, it’s time for bed. The boys are home for the week. I need all the rest I can get!

I’ve been spending the last few hours finishing up Maxwell’s site. All the fics have been untagged and recategorized to work with the Multiple Category Selection Widget, with hope that it will make it easier for readers to find their kinks. The site is as updated as it’s going to get until we find a theme that screams “Max”. I’m still pissed that roam2rome bailed on her Coffee Desk theme. That was the best one, so far.

On a related note, can anyone tell me the significance of using Feedburner? I was running the feed for Max’ site through them, but Google’s mandatory move kinda fucked things up. If there’s a really good reason (i.e. other than knowing how many subscribers via RSS Max has) I might attempt to fix it. Otherwise I’m going to stick with the original post/comment feeds.

The preteen is grounded again. He just will not leave the ringer on the new phone alone! I hate grounding him (it’s as much punishment for me as it is for him) but I have no idea what else to do.

I picked up the yarn to make the skirt I mentioned in a previous post. One of the good things about Caron Simply Soft is that it has no dye lot. Since the pattern doesn’t give yarn requirements for the big girl sizes I had to estimate. If I run out before I’m finished I can easily get more, without worrying about a chunk of the skirt having a noticeable change in coloration.

We took the boys out to Chipotle for dinner. While the preteen enjoyed his pizza from Subway, the rest of us snarfed down burritos. I still think Boloco is better (and cheaper) but Ben was quite content with his bean-free chicken burrito and bottle if Izze.

Still exercising. Aside from Monday (my shoulder) and Wednesday (Ooo! Shiny!) I’ve been keeping on top of things. Ben was entertaining himself earlier today by poking at my belly and watching it jiggle. I’m at that point were the muscle is starting to get toned, but the skin and the fat still need to catch up.

Now I have to plug in my Sansa Clip (which, I’m told, rivals the Creative Zen Stone and makes the iPod Shuffle fanboys cry) and see if the firmware update solves my recently developed problem with long subscription tracks popping and snapping — something I so enjoy listening to while I’m trying to meditate. Wish me luck!

This morning’s post is being brought to you by the following search terms: sex babs, babs, www.babspote.com, “my beauty bars”, bab’s.

I should be in bed, sleeping, right now but you-know-who is snoring louder than a mufflerless engine and is keeping me awake.

I got my taxes filed. I highly recommend H&R Block’s online tax filing. This year they’ve added free preparation and filing of Federal taxes to their offerings. It doesn’t have the bells and whistles that “Basic” has, and you still have to cough up the $30 to file State, but it did save me $19.95 $14.95 (or $12.95 if you were to upgrade to it from free). As usual, Glenn thinks we are getting $1000 less than we actually are. This keeps him from spending it all on shit we don’t really need.

After filing the taxes I tried to play the current disk we have of “That ’70s Show” but, like the last three disks of that series, it won’t play on my computer. So I ended up on Netflix, watching old school Knight Rider and listening to the boys talk trash about KITT. I’m sorry, but the new Knight Rider is nothing but an hour long commerical for Ford, the new KITT has the personality of a rock (Val Kilmer’s got nothing on Willaim Daniels) and there is very little, if any, bond between him and Michael. May it run its 13 eps and then die a painful death.

While watching Knight Rider I managed to get some knitting and crocheting done. I finally used up the last of the scraps in the rug I’m knitting, so that’s been set aside until I acquire more. Then I got a few more rows done on the afghan I’m working on for the livingroom. It’ll look really nice once we get new cushions for the sofa. I don’t know if I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I found a really cute (and easy) pattern for a “pleated” school girl skirt. As soon as I can find a nice yarn I plan on making it up. *crosses fingers I’ll have it done for Spring*

Both of the kitties are lying on my side of the bed, washing themselves. As funny as it is to watch I’m going to have to cut their bathtime short. I’m really tired.

For starters, I forgot to post this week’s weigh in. Given that I gained 2 pounds this may not be a bad thing. *sheepish grin* I did get a couple hours of cardio in this week, though, so all is not lost.

I managed to go from 7am yesterday to 5pm today without a cigarette, thanks to aromatherapy and nicotine gum. I caved after that. The stress of dealing with Glenn and the boys has been too much. On the semi-positive side the few cigs I did smoke today tasted NASTY, so I will be making another attempt to quit ASAP. I’m amazed I managed to last as long as I did. Last night I was so tense! For the last couple of nights Glenn has been so drunk that he snores. LOUDLY. So fucking loud that I can have my Sansa up high enough to hurt my ears and I can still hear him! And any attempt to roll him over results in failure. He is so lucky I didn’t take advantage of his pillow laying beside him last night ’cause, trust me, I probably could’ve pulled off the “temporary insanity thing”.

In other news the preteen, who refuses to brush his teeth, lost two of them in the course of a week. Because the Town refuses to pay for dental insurance we have no way of telling if they were baby teeth coming out late. I’m thinking “no”. The loss of one of them isn’t too bad, however, as it was one of the same two teeth I had to have pulled to make way for my “fangs” which the preteen has inherited. One is growning in the spot where one tooth fell out (hell, it might have even pushed it out), the other is coming in above and behind the tooth it should be in front of. *headdesk*

Wednesday night was the first practice of Bay State Sound, the corps that has risen out of the ashes of the Light Brigade. Most folks were expecting some reunion time after two months vacation but Bill, the owner/manager/etc. insisted both the horn and drum lines commence to learn the new program. The colorguard went downstairs and discussed what we would do if BSS doesn’t show some true signs of life within the next few months. It was decided that if the corps. failed we’d go, as a group, to the Holy Defenders. Well, a group minus one. The Holy Defenders are in Rockland, home of the secret lover Glenn insists I have, so I can’t go. This means if Bay State Sound doesn’t take off I have to choose between either being a traitor by joining the Boston Crusaders, or not being in a colorguard at all.

Inbetween all of this I’ve been busy crocheting, Simming and watching DVDs. I’ve managed to create a handful of scarves that I hope to unload on Etsy. I’m so loving the good and bad witches in “Apartment Life” but fear that I will not “complete” the game within my lifetime, even with all the dumbasses setting fire to themselves. I can’t get enough of the director/cast commentary for “The Lords of Dogtown” so I checked out Best Buy to see if they had a copy, cheap. They had a copy labeled $9.99, which wasn’t bad. Even better was when it rang up for $5.99!

*pulls a snickerdoodle from my secret stash* Shh! These things are delicious! I refuse to share them with the boys.